This past weekend I was in Charlotte N.C. and I saw a Lufthansa A330 climbing out of Charlotte Airport. Was this a charter flight, or do Lufthansa have flights to and from Charlotte Airport using Airbus A330?

It's not just BMW, it's also Siemens & ABB in Charlotte, Greenville and many other smaller companies such as Treutzler (textile machinery - Gastonia, NC). I used to think it was a dumb route for LH but it has been around much longer than the BMW plant and the 2 times I flew it it was about 90%+ full. The winter ski season is just a great by-product but the real meat is as you say, the German corporate pipeline.

Quoting GBan (Reply 5):According to the LH flight plan (http://www.lhtimetable.com/LH.pdf) CLT-MUC is a 343 during winter (Wednesday through Sunday daily) and a 333 in summer (daily except Tuesday).

I wonder if they were having performance issues with the 343 in the summer. 10,000 feet should be plenty of runway, but CVG-CDG on an AF 343 routinely takes (took?) 8000 or 9000 feet in the summer even when it wasn't particularly hot.

Quoting Bicoastal (Reply 3):It's affectionately known as the BMW Express. Large BMW facilities in the American south need a lifeline to HQ in Munich.

Not just the South, but specifically in Spartanburg, SC. Further, you add other German interests, a major banking center and the only true STAR hub in the South Eastern US and you have good reason for the flights.

Quoting Cubsrule (Reply 9):
I wonder if they were having performance issues with the 343 in the summer.

Absolutely not. That route is not even at half of the A343's range band. The A333 is used likely because it is more fuel efficient and because the A343 is wasting tons of range.

Quoting MSYtristar (Reply 14):I think they used the 74M code...pretty sure of that. This was in the early 90's.

Initially, about half of LH's 744s ordered were combi aircraft. All were eventually converted to full PAX.

Quoting EarlyNFF (Reply 9):Quoting RDUDDJI (Reply 7):
The LH flight has only been around 2-3 years.
Not quite true: LH had the first non stop service to CLT many years ago, from FRA. They discontinued that service when US discovered this segment. All that was long before *A-times, IIRC

Since he's talking about CLT-MUC (the only existing LH flight), EarlyNFF is correct.CLT-MUC service started March 26, 2004 - a little over 3 years ago.CLT-FRA service started August 1991 and ended October 1992 (14 months) with a 747. Was advertised as discontinued due to poor revenue,

Quoting Cubsrule (Reply 16):
Not a range issue, a runway performance issue. 343s have lovely range, but they hog runway like crazy, and CLT, though it's not very high, can get plenty hot in the summer.

The A343 has plenty of runway performance for their mission. The climb may not be impressive looking, but they get off the ground in a reasonable time. If the aircraft can do SXM-CDG non-stop, it can do CLT-MUC.

Quoting Vega (Reply 18):Quoting EarlyNFF (Reply 9):
Quoting RDUDDJI (Reply 7):
The LH flight has only been around 2-3 years.
Not quite true: LH had the first non stop service to CLT many years ago, from FRA. They discontinued that service when US discovered this segment. All that was long before *A-times, IIRC

Since he's talking about CLT-MUC (the only existing LH flight), EarlyNFF is correct.CLT-MUC service started March 26, 2004 - a little over 3 years ago.CLT-FRA service started August 1991 and ended October 1992 (14 months) with a 747. Was advertised as discontinued due to poor revenue,

Sorry, RDUDDJI, I disconnected the reply thread. Should read "Since he's talking about CLT-MUC (the only existing LH flight), RDUDDJI is correct".

The route started off as a A340-300 and now is mainly A330-300's. I do see a A340-300's fly over my house every once in a while. A couple of times I even saw the A340-600 fill in for the smaller Airbus.

Quoting GBan (Reply 5):According to the LH flight plan (http://www.lhtimetable.com/LH.pdf) CLT-MUC is a 343 during winter (Wednesday through Sunday daily) and a 333 in summer (daily except Tuesday).

I think it has to do with the general use of the a/c during the summer LH has for example two daily flights from FRA to BOS. In the winter only one. So I just think they need the 343 in the summer for different routes and can't spare it since US has a hub in Charlotte and can take some of the traffic with code share flights.